Warranty servicing for discretely degrading items with non-zero repair time under renewing warranty

This paper considers a repair-replacement strategy for a special class of discretely degrading and repairable products under renewing free replacement warranty. Each product may experience N different working states with different exponential hazard functions, before the warranty contract expires. Once the item enters working state i (i = 1, 2, … , N), it can either fail or move to any of the subsequent working states with different probabilities, given that a transition has been made. In the former case, the best rectification action, replacement or minimal repair, regarding the failure status, i.e., the product degradation level at the failure time and the remaining warranty time, should be conducted to put the item into operation. It is assumed that replacement of the faulty item occurs instantly and the product warranty is renewed, but non-zero repair time has been included in the model. We derive the optimal replacement-repair policy to minimize the manufacturer’s expected warranty servicing cost per item sold. The Adomian decomposition method is used to find an analytic approximate solution for a special case with two working states. For N > 2, a simulation based optimization method has been developed to analyze the expected warranty cost. Some numerical examples in each section are given to clearly demonstrate the application of this model.     

In vitro characterization of a novel tissue engineered based hybridized nano and micro structured collagen implant and its in vivo role on tenoinduction,tenoconduction, tenogenesis and tenointegration

Surgical reconstruction of large tendon defects is technically demanding. Tissue engineering is a new option. We produced a novel tissue engineered, collagen based, bioimplant and in vitro characterizations of the implant were investigated. In addition, we investigated role of the collagen implant on the healing of a large tendon defect model in rabbits. A two cm length of the left rabbit’s Achilles tendon was transected and discarded. The injured tendons of all the rabbits were repaired by Kessler pattern to create and maintain a 2 cm tendon gap. The collagen implant was inserted in the tendon defect of the treatment group (n = 30). The defect area was left intact in the control group (n = 30). The animals were euthanized at 60 days post injury (DPI) and the macro- micro- and nano- morphologies and the biomechanical characteristics of the tendon samples were studied. Differences of P < 0.05 were considered significant. The host graft interaction was followed at various stages of tendon healing, using pilot animals. At 60 DPI, a significant increase in number, diameter and density of the collagen fibrils, number and maturity of tenoblasts and tenocytes, alignment of the collagen fibrils and maturity of the elastic fibers were seen in the treated tendons when compared to the control ones (P < 0.05). Compared to the control lesions, number of inflammatory cells, amount of peritendinous adhesions and muscle fibrosis and atrophy, were significantly lower in the treated lesions (P < 0.05). Treatment also significantly increased load to failure, tensile strength and elastic modulus of the samples as compared with the control ones. The collagen implant properly incorporated with the healing tissue and was replaced by the new tendinous structure which was superior both ultra-structurally and physically than the loose areolar connective tissue regenerated in the control lesions. The results of this study may be valuable in the clinical practice.     

MODELING OF MEMBRANE FOULING AND FLUX DECLINE IN MICROFILTRATION OF OILY WASTEWATER USING CERAMIC MEMBRANES

One of the major problems in pressure-driven membrane processes is reduction of flux far below the theoretical capacity of the membrane. The results of an experimental study of fouling mechanisms of ceramic membranes in separation of oil from synthesized oily wastewaters are presented. Mullite microfiltration (MF) membranes were synthesized from kaolin clay as MF ceramic membranes. The rejection of total organic carbon (TOC) for the synthetic feeds was found to be more than 94% by these membranes. Hermia's models were used to investigate the fouling mechanisms of membranes. The effect of pressure, cross flow velocity (CFV), temperature, oil concentration, and salt concentration on flux decline were investigated. The results showed that the cake filtration model can well predict the flux decline of mullite ceramic membranes; average error of this model is less than 7%. The results show that by increasing pressure from 0.5 to 4 bar, porosity of the cake layer on the mullite membranes decreases from 25.68% to 14.98%. After the cake filtration model, the intermediate pore blocking model was found to well predict the experimental data with an average error less than 10.5%.     

Theoretical and experimental analysis of machining errors on small arced corners during WEDM finishing stages

Abstract

Accurate machining in small-radius paths is a challenge associated with Wire Electrical Discharge Machining (WEDM). This article experimentally and theoretically analyzes the machining errors of the arced paths through successive machining stages. The machining errors of a three-stage WEDM on both straight and arced paths are first experimentally analyzed. Mathematical expressions are derived to relate new theoretical concepts, including spark angle and spark density, for each finishing stage on both straight and arced paths. Then, the effects of these concepts on machining errors of the finishing stages are determined. The causes of the machining errors of the first and second finishing stages on male and female arced paths are theoretically analyzed, and a novel mathematical methodology for the prediction of these errors is developed. The experimental machining errors of the first and second finishing stages on the different arced paths are compared and evaluated with related theoretical ones. Results reveal that the mathematical methodology predicts and compensates the machining errors of the first finishing stage with the accuracy of 78% and of the second finishing stage with the accuracy of 83%. There is a good improvement which can be employed in WEDM applications and to increase the wire electrical discharge (WED) machine capability.     

Experimental and numerical analysis of hydrodynamic deep drawing assisted by radial pressure at elevated temperatures

Nowadays, due to the demand for lightweight construction and fuel consumption reduction, especially in automotive and aerospace industries, the use of aluminum alloys has drawn much attention. Nevertheless, poor formability at room temperature is the main drawback of using these alloys. To overcome the problem, the work material is formed at elevated temperatures. In the present paper, Hydrodynamic Deep Drawing assisted by Radial Pressure (HDDRP) process has been selected over other forming methods. The aim of the study is to investigate the applicability of this process in conjunction with warm forming. For this purpose, experimental and numerical attempts have been made on warm forming of flat-bottom cylindrical cups in isothermal condition. At first, a series of warm hydroforming experiments were performed to determine the effect of tool temperature and forming speed on the thickness distribution of the final part and on the required forming load. Then, a set of finite element analyses (FEA) were performed using ABAQUS explicit to extend the findings. The Response Surface Method (RSM) was then used to build the relationship between the input parameters such as temperature and forming speed, and output responses including minimum part thickness and maximum punch force. It is demonstrated that the required forming force was decreased with increase in punch speed and tool temperature. Additionally, minimum thickness of the part is increased with increasing temperature and decreasing punch speed. Studying the Limiting Drawing Ratio (LDR) revealed that elevating the forming temperature causes reduction in LDR, while rising the punch speed leads to a slight enhancement in it. For the evaluation of part dimensional changes after forming, springback analysis was done via studying the through-thickness hoop stress distribution. It is found that using warm isothermal HDDRP in high forming rate results in more uniform stress distribution and lower level of stress and so a better springback behavior.     

Experimental investigation,modeling and optimization of membrane separation using artificial neural network and multi-objective optimization using genetic algorithm

In this work, treatment of oily wastewaters with commercial polyacrylonitrile (PAN) ultrafiltration (UF) membranes was investigated. In order to do these experiments, the outlet wastewater of the API (American Petroleum Institute) unit of Tehran refinery, is used as the feed. The purpose of this paper was to predict the permeation flux and fouling resistance, by applying artificial neural networks (ANNs), and then to optimize the operating conditions in separation of oil from industrial oily wastewaters, including trans-membrane pressure (TMP), cross-flow velocity (CFV), feed temperature and pH, so that a maximum permeation flux accompanied by a minimum fouling resistance, was acquired by applying genetic algorithm as a powerful soft computing technique. The experimental input data, including TMP, CFV, feed temperature and pH, permeation flux and fouling resistance as outputs, were used to create ANN models. This fact that there is an excellent agreement between the experimental data and the predicted values was shown by the modeling results. Eventually, by multi-objective optimization, using genetic algorithm (GA), an optimization tool was created to predict the optimum operating parameters for desired permeation flux (i.e. maximum flux) and fouling resistance (i.e. minimum fouling) behavior. The accuracy of the model is confirmed by the comparison between the predicted and experimental data.     

Electrochemical investigation of the anodic corrosion of Pb–Ca–Sn–Li grid alloy in H2SO4 solution

The steady-state and anodic corrosion of Pb–0.17 wt.% Ca–0.88 wt.% Sn, and Pb–0.17 wt.% Ca–0.88 wt.% Sn–0.06 wt.% Li alloys in 4.5 M H₂SO₄ at 25 °C were studied using cyclic voltammetry, linear sweep voltammetry, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The experimental results show that the lithium added to Pb–Ca–Sn alloy increases corrosion resistance in equilibrium potential and inhibits the growth of the anodic corrosion layer.